Authority of the Believer
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The position of your Authority
The position of your Authority
This morning I want to discuss the position of your authority in heaven. I want to open with an illustration from my house. In my house, as many of you know, I have 6 kids from 14 down to 2. But I’m going to open my household for a second and I want you peer inside. Just for a moment. When Beth and I leave the house for short periods of time we use two children to babysit our 2 years old. Our 12 year old and our 10 year old. There is a reason for this. And I want you to understand this:
There is a difference between Age and Position
The two kids who aren’t the oldest are given the most authority in my house. Here’s the reason:
They earned it
I hear Christians state all the time-Salvation is free. And that’s true. But what we forget is that Salvation is the beginning and not the end of the story.
Living in my house, for my kids, is free. Everything else in my house is earned. Do not Mix your title with your position.
Your title says: You are a child of God. Your position tells the story of your authority.
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
They were children of God. They were believers in Christ, but they hadn’t fully walked into their position yet. I have asked God before why there weren’t really modern day Paul’s and Peters. abd his response was humbling:
People want to the position Paul and Peter had without the Sacrifice Paul and Peter gave.
So this morning I want to look at an OT principle. We need to understand that in the OT what happened then in the natural has Spiritual meaning to the NT church. It’s why the authors of the bible used OT examples and then showed us the principle.
Romans 9:12 (ESV)
12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
This happened in the natural but I want to show you the Spiritual Principle.
Rebekah had conceived two children, twins, from Isaac. The prophet prophesied to Rebekah that the older son will serve the younger son. This was done, as scripture tells us before they were born so that it would be understood that God had put this in motion and that it wasn’t man made.
In the womb you are given a mind, your will and your emotion. That’s your soul.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
This isn’t talking about your liver and kidney, but rather your soul-your mind, will, and emotions.
So your born.But then the bible uses a specific term-Born again.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The term born again means born in the Spirit. Understand it’s why you can be 50 years old and still be considered a Spiritual infant.
This second Birth is the indwelling of the Spirit of God inside of you.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
First you have to born of water---you must be conceived. A Sperm must meet an egg. and then be born of the Spirit. There must be a surrender of your Soul to your Spirit.
The older will serve the younger. For me I was 19/20 ish when I was truly born again. At 19 my older soul had to surrender to my newly formed Spirit man inside of me.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Up until 19 I did what I wanted, when I wanted, and how I wanted to do it. At 19 the battle of the flesh and Spirit began. This is the process of Sanctification or modern terms.
The Process of Spiritual Maturity.
I get asked all the time: Pastor why won’t God give me more- fill in the blank. Because you
Your Maturity matches your Responsibility.
I my house if you want more Responsibility you have to show more maturity. Age earns your nothing in my house. At 16, in my house, doesn’t mean you can drive. If you aren’t mature enough at 16 than we must wait until your maturity age matches the legal physical age of driving.
The same is true in the Kingdom of God.
So how do we mature Spiritually
Submit to Spiritual Behaviors
Just like in life there are where you clean your room, do your chores, and earn trust in Responsibility we must do the same in the Heavenlies.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
We must submit ourselves to biblical behaviors in order to obtain biblical responsibility.
If you want more authority you must press into deeper things
Galatians 5:16 (ESV)
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
The term walk here is Means to walk with purpose. The term is actually interchangable with Behave
The idea is behave by the Spirit. and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The Greek word
Peripateo( Peri PAT Toe)
Peripateo- Means Behave with Spirit behaviors
The only way to submit your soul to God’s Spirit born inside of you is to change your behaviors. To go from Soul behaviors (or I statements I want, I need, I have to) To God Behaviors (God wants, God needs, God has to)
to advance in maturity it must go from I want this…to What does God desire me to do and the only way to make that conversion is through Spiritual practices such as Prayer, Prayer in tongues, worship, reading your bible.
You become what you ingest. If you desire to become something different you have to ingest different things.
So Spiritual practices helps us die to self and become more like Christ. It matures us and the maturer we become the more responsibilities we have.
2. Submit to Spiritual Training
Hebrews 5:14 (ESV)
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
I love this quote:
Most Christians are Betweeners—they are between Egypt and Cannan-Out of the place of Danger, but not yet into the place of rest and rich inheritance. They are betwen Good Friday and Easter Sunday—Saved by the blood but not enjoying newness of resurrection of life.
Between Egypt and Cannan was the desert place and the desert place wasn’t a place of death, but it wasn’t a place of blessing:
The desert was a place of Training
A Blessed and untrained person is headed for destruction.
Jesus talking to the disciples said this:
Matthew 19:24 (ESV)
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
It dawned on me a few months ago. Why were the disciples astonished. If they were poor they would have agreed with Jesus. It would have been an easy statement to recieve. But its believed that most of the disciples were wealthy.
Luke- was a Dr.
Matthew- a tax collector.
Peter: Owned a fishing empire. He more than likely hired and paid-Andrew, James, and John
Simon was in politics
Judas was a financial advisor.
Jesus was telling them that without Jesus’ sacrifice, without spiritual maturity
Those who are blessed find it difficult to need Jesus.
The key to maturity is equal to the depth of your understanding of how much you need Jesus. That’s the sole purpose of the training ground. That’s the soul reason we are put through trying times. So that in the blessed times we remember where we were before we trusted Jesus.